Unternehmen & Trends - Ausgabe 1/2018

it‘s that time again – on March 23, the world‘s most impor- tant industrial fair is opening its doors in Hanover for five days. Under the motto „Integrated Industry – Connect & Collaborate“, five leading trade fairs – Automation & Drives, Digital Factory, Energy, Industrial Supply and Research & Technology - present key industrial technologies under one roof. „The HANNOVER fair is“, as Dr. Jochen Klöckler, Chair- man of the Board of Deutsche Messe AG, has declared „the global Industry 4.0 hotspot,“ and thus the ideal platform for networking and business contacts. More than 5,000 exhibitors are presenting their innova- tions and solutions at the Hanover Trade Fair Centre. The worldwide visitors to HANNOVER MESSE will experience how networking changes the business world and proces- ses and thus creates new economic activity. The meeting point for job seekers is the Job and Career exhibition area in Hall 16. Every day, lectures, company presentations and discussions are taking place there at the STAGE. On the Monday of the fair, we invite you to become a guest at the round-table discussion with moderator Gerald Anschütz and the topic „Working environments of the future with regard to the compatibility of work and family – opportunities and risks for employers“. With this new edition, Unternehmen & Trends provides you with insights into new technologies, trends and innovations. One of the many interesting contributions, for example, is the article on the topic of „Solution approaches for ma- nufacturer-independent, standardised interfaces in pro- duction“, on page 66 by Olaf Sauer, Fraunhofer Institut für Optronik, Systemtechnik und Bildauswertung (IOSB). On page 70 Bernard Rensinghoff, from Forschungsvereinigung Antriebstechnik e.V., reports on the added value of sharing and how industrial collective research makes it possible to share knowledge profitably. On page 74 Ralf Högel informs our readers about how an innovative loading and unloading system, „The all-rounder robot cell“, increases flexibility and productivity. Numerous employers, such as AVM, Brose, Deutsche Telekom, Hermes and Infineon are presenting themselves as family-friendly employers with their employee retention programs in the „Job and Career“ section of this issue. We at Unternehmen&Trends are looking forward to provi- ding our readers with a forum and an information platform in magazine format, in which companies can present and feature their latest developments, technologies, innovations and products – and not only in proven print form, but also cross-media. This opens up significantly more background and context for our readers via interactions, links and networking to web content and social media, far more than the print edition. Job seekers have the opportunity to directly inform themselves about potential employers and to check if they are the right candidates. We hope you enjoy reading and networking. Editorial Dear readers, Unternehmen & Trends 63 TIPP This year‘s CEBIT, with powerful themes and new formats, will take place from 11 to 15 June at the Hanover Exhibition Centre. Elisabeth Klock Dr. Rudolf Müller